Cuba? No, Cairo. The Illinois One

My tummy was growling for the catfish dinner at Shemwell’s Barbecue in Cairo, and it was a race between which was going to come first: closing time at the restaurant or sunset. Maybe it was all the Cuba coverage with photos of vintage cars on the street that made me unusually car-aware, but suddenly I had to go around the block to take a second look at this guy parked next to a long-closed gas station.

It would have been nice to show more of the car, but there was a John boat parked alongside it that blocked most of it. Click on the photos to make them larger.

What is it?

When it comes to cars, I have a tenuous grip on my man card. Other guys could sit around for hours talking about their car’s innards: stuff about cubic inches, horsepower, turbo this and glass-packed that.

I only needed to know two things: (A) Will it get me there? and, (B) Will it get me back?

(A), in fact, was the more important to a news photographer. If I accomplished (A) and got the photo, then there was always somebody who would retrieve me (or, at least, retrieve the film).

What are we looking at?

I’m sure somebody will tell me more than I ever wanted to know about this vehicle.

7 Replies to “Cuba? No, Cairo. The Illinois One”

Mark Simmons you are a winner! The next town over is Oldsmar, Florida named for the same Mr. Ransom E. Olds as in Oldsmobile. These two doors we sold often times as Business coupe for the traveling business man.My guess on the service station is Gulf and second guess is Cities Service.

As for the make and model of the car, the information will be more than you may have wanted to know. I believe it to be a 1946 Oldsmobile — one of 119,388 built for the model year. There were VERY minor differences between 1946 and 1947 (trim on side of front fender.) The part of the emblem on the front of the hood that read “Oldsmobile” was made of Lucite (plastic) and probably fell off years ago. The cost of the club coupe was $1,108 for those buyers that were lucky enough to “score” ANY new car right after the war!

Standard is the most likely, but an early paint scheme with two red stripes low on the building, other variants included; two red stripes high, and one wide stripe high.
Cities Service was one better with three green stripes low, and Gulf had three blue stripes low or one wide blue stripe.

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Cape Central High Photos

Ken Steinhoff, Cape Girardeau Central High School Class of 1965, was a photographer for The Tiger and The Girardot, and was on the staff of The Capaha Arrow and The Sagamore at Southeast Missouri State University. He worked as a photographer / reporter (among other things) at The Jackson Pioneer and The Southeast Missourian.

He transferred to Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, his junior year, and served as photo editor of The Ohio University Post. He was also chief photographer of The Athens Messenger.

He was chief photographer of the Gastonia (NC) Gazette for a long 18 months until he could escape to The Palm Beach Post, where he served as a staff photographer, director of photography, editorial operations manager and telecommunications manager. He accepted a buyout in 2008, after 35 years at the paper.

Most of the stories are about growing up in a small Midwestern town on the Mississippi River, but there’s no telling what you might run into.

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